Members will have followed the FBU fairer commutation campaign with interest.

The FBU has fought long and hard to ensure the retirement lump sum of thousands of firefighter were corrected following mistakes by Government Actuaries Department.

Early this year the Pensions Ombudsman decided to retrospectively apply the uplift for firefighters who retired from 1 December 2001 to 21 August 2006. The decision means that thousands of firefighters and even more police officers will receive the lump sum they were entitled to with additional interest payments.

The union is pursuing several another legal cases relating to firefighter pensions. One of these relates to a related issue around commutation payments, another involves those who joined the service between the ages of 18-20 and several relating to age discrimination. The FBU is also investing a considerable amount of money and resources providing training to local officials ensuring that they have the skills to represent retired members with pension appeals and these numbers have increased.

The FBU has always campaigned for our members, whether they be whole-time, retained or out of trade.

This is against a backdrop of a government that is decimating our fire service – 7,000 firefighters jobs and over 40 fire stations have gone since 2010. Alongside these unprecedented cuts, firefighterâ€™s pensions have been attacked, pay has been restrained and trade union rights are under threat.

We will continue to campaign against these attacks, but we need the resources to do so.

The union legal fees on these pension campaigns are expected to be over Â£100,000.

A number of members have expressed, in light on the commutation victory, an interest in supporting these campaigns and some have already made donations to our campaigning fund. Retired Police Officers have also indicated that they are ready to show their gratitude.

To make this easier the FBU has set up an â€˜FBU Campaign Fundâ€™ for those who wish to make a donation.